Chances Are It's Shorty ... Rogers

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

What are the chances that the following group of stellar musicians would walk into a recording studio in Hollywood on three, separate occasions in December, 1958 and lay down a dozen big band arrangements each of which is beautifully executed and bristling with sparkling energy?:

PERSONNEL ON TRACKS 1,2,3 & 4

Shorty Rogers, Don Fagerquist,

Conte Candoli, Pete Candoli, Al Porcino,

Ollie Mitchell, Ray Triscari, trumpets

Bob Enevoldsen, valve trombone

Harry Betts, Dick Nash, trombones

Kenny Shroyer, bass trombone

Paul Horn, Bud Shank, clarinet,

flute and alto saxes

Bill Holman, Richie Kamuca, tenor saxes

Chuck Gentry, baritone sax

Gene Estes, vibes

Howard Roberts, Barney Kessel, guitars

Pete Jolly, piano

Joe Mondragon, bass

Mel Lewis, drums

December 9,1958

TRACKS 6,7,9 & 10

December 12,1958

TRACKS 5,8,11 & 12

Red Norvo, vibes

Monty Budwig, bass

replace Estes and Mondragon

December 20,1958

Recorded in Los Angeles, California

Well, your chances would be especially good if your name is Shorty Rogers and, in addition to being an excellent trumpet and flugelhorn player and and a highly regarded arranger-composer whose work includes charts for Woody Herman, Stan Kenton and a host of other big bands including his own, you were also acting as RCA Victor’s Artist and Repertoire representative for Jazz on the West Coast.

And that’s exactly what happened on December 9, 12, and 20 when the above-group of studio musicians recorded the following tracks for Shorty’s Chances Are It Swings: Shorty Rogers and His Orchestra featuring The Giants [RCA LPM-1975; RCA BMG 74321433902]:

1.  Chances Are (3:19)

(Robert Allen-Richard Adler)

2.  No Such Luck (2:19)

(Robert Allen-Richard Adler)

3.  It's Not For Me To Say (4:38)

•    (Robert Allen-Richard Adler)

4.  Lilac Chiffon (4:01)

(Robert Allen-Peter Lind Hayes)

5.  I Just Don't Know (4:27)

(Robert Allen-Joseph Stone)

6.  Who Needs You (2:58)

(Robert Allen-Al Stillman)

7.  Everybody Loves A Lover (3=50)

(Robert Allen-Richard Adler)

8 Comes To Me (2:48)

(Robert Allen-Peter Lind Hayes)

9. My Very Good Friend In The Looking Glass

(Robert Allen-AIlStillman) (3:33)'

10 You Know How It Is (3:22)

(Robert Allen-Al Stillman)

11.  A Very Special Love (2=00)

(Robert Allen)

12.  Teacher, Teacher (2:37)

(Robert Allen-Al Stillman)

At the time, John Tynan was the West Coast editor for Downbeat magazine and he wrote these insert notes for the recording which will give you some additional insights into the project’s background [paragraphing modified]:

“That fickle lass, Jazz, is a volatile wench of multicolored moods. She can be broadly bluesy or subtly cool, rubbing elbows with disparate sources from the guitar-strumming Mississippi cotton picker to the urbane Cole Porter.

Though her demands may be finicky at times "La Jazz" imposes one basic prerequisite on those who would court her: the music on which she swings must be high caliber. This alliance of arranger-trumpeter Shorty Rogers and songwriter Robert Allen proves a happy combination of brilliant arranging and hit songs. Allen's songs bear melodic witness that real talent, no matter how long its incubation period, must express itself.

"I've been writing songs for only about six years" Allen explains. "Before 1952, I played jazz piano in New York night clubs. Nothing very far out. Certainly nothing to cheer about." After a half dozen years on the club circuit, the constant urge to write became a nagging ache. "I found myself thinking about writing all the time," says Allen. "It was bugging me. And I found myself losing the incentive to play. All I could think about was writing songs... it became an obsession."

Allen's obsession turned out to be magnificent. In the past three years alone some 80 per cent of his tunes have been hits. There are no less than seven "smashes" in this album. Of Rogers' work in adapting his songs to big jazz band interpretation, Allen waxes lyrical. "This album is today," he exults. "It's revolutionary in concept when you consider the popular music picture today. Unlike so much jazz being currently produced, this set is not living in yesterdays music... I'm firmly convinced that Shorty has established twelve standards with his treatment of my tunes."

Positive that"... it's impossible for things ready to swing unless you understand the material," the composer declares that Rogers has succeeded in opening facets of his songs never before revealed. "You know," Allen muses, "when songs become popular hits, most people don't think of their chordal structure in jazz terms. They're played on the neighborhood jukeboxes, people whistle and hum them—but there's where their musical interest ends."

Yet, in Allen's opinion, the heyday of big bands was marked by successful, valid jazz treatments of then current popular songs. He cites Jimmie Lunceford's "Ain't She Sweet," Count Basie's "Cheek to Cheek" and Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and points out that some of the best jazz of the Thirties was blown on a pop song by Fats Waller—"Honeysuckle Rose."

The composer contends a similar approach should apply to good contemporary popular songs. "When the public hears an album of familiar pop songs with good jazz treatment," Allen conjectures, "maybe they'll like it well enough to buy it. And in passing they just might learn a thing or two about good music. This worked in the old days; no reason why it shouldn't again."

As Shorty Rogers' imaginative arrangements demonstrate, jazz can be written into and improvised on most music of real merit. As vehicles for the driving solos of both Shorty and some of the best jazz hornmen in Hollywood (necessarily uncredited), the album turns out to be mighty creditable jazz indeed.

Shorty's tightly controlled modern trumpet style, born of Diz Gillespie and Miles Davis, had its genesis in the early days of the bebop era even before Shorty became one of the star soloists in Woody Herman's First Herd.

Today he is no more a "typical bebopper" than is writer Allen. Domesticated in Southern California since 1947, the 34-year-old trumpeter is one of the busiest arrangers on the Coast. From the cluttered workroom behind his Van Nuys home, Shorty turns out arrangements for a wide variety of RCA Victor recordings— from commercial pop vocal singles to his own big band jazz albums such as CHANCES ARE IT SWINGS.

Needless to say, chances that this album swings are better than even. In fact, grins Shorty, the element of chance that it would not never once entered his mind.

—John Tynan”

Thankfully, there are still many fine studio musicians in Hollywood, CA and some wonderful arranger-composers on the Jazz West Coast scene.

Chances are you’ll get to read more about them in some future postings on these pages.

Chances are, too, that many of them were inspired by the work of Shorty Rogers who in his kind, quiet and understated way, put his imprimatur on much that was great about West Coast Jazz during its halcyon days.

The audio track to the following video tribute to Shorty will provide you with a taste of the music that’s on offer in Chances Are It Swings: Shorty Rogers and His Orchestra featuring The Giants. In the event that you are not familiar with it, the tune is Chances Are which went on to become a mega hit for Robert Allen when Johnny Mathis recorded his vocal version in 1957.

George Robert - Swiss Master

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

It is always great fun to encounter a musician who is new to you and whose music moves your ears in different directions.

Such was the case for me with the Swiss-born alto/soprano saxophonist and clarinetist George Robert [“row-bear”-  if you are looking for a pronunciation of his last name that is closer to the French].

George’s career had been underway for some time before I discovered his work, initially due to Philip Barker’s production of George’s Tribute CD in 1994 for his Jazz Focus label [JFCD 004]. George’s quintet on this recording featured Italian pianist Dado Moroni.

I became a great fan of Dado’s playing and a few years later Philip and I co-produced Out of the Night: The Dado Moroni Trio on Jazz Focus [JFCD 032].

Philip had compiled discographies of the recordings of both George and Dado from which I learned of the 1993 recording, George Robert with The Metropole Orchestra Conducted by Rob Pronk [Mons CD 876-993], and two other CDs by George from around the same period: a collaboration between George and Dado entitled Youngbloods [1992, Mons CD 1897] and The George Robert Quartet Featuring Mr. Clark Terry [1990, TCB 90802].

It wasn’t until March, 1999 when I was in Seattle for the recordings sessions of Dado’s Out of the Night that Bill Goodwin, the drummer on the date, hipped me to two records by George that are among my enduring favorites. George made these with a quintet that he co-led with trumpeter Tom Harrell and which existed for about three years as a working group with a rhythm section made up of Dado on piano, Reggie Johnson on bass and Bill on drums.

These are Sun Dance: The Tom Harrell - George Robert Quintet [Contemporary CCD 14037-2] and Lonely Eyes: The George Robert - Tom Harrell Quintet [GPR 1002]. Bill Goodwin produced both dates.

Dan Morgenstern, the esteemed Jazz author and the Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University [now retired], penned the insert notes to both recordings.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles wrote to Dan requesting permission to reproduce them as part of this feature which he very graciously granted.

Together, Dan’s writings will provide you with a comprehensive and informative introduction to the engaging and exciting music of George Robert.

© -Dan Morgenstern: used with the author’s permission; copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Sundance

“At this moment in time, nothing is more important to jazz than the presence of gifted young players who know and love the true language of the music and are committed to its continuation. The list of such musicians, happily, has been growing of late, and on the evidence of this splendid record, we can safely add to it the name of George Robert.

What this young man has put together here is a band - not just a bunch of guys who met in a studio and went through the motions, but a musical collective made up of players who think and feel together, listen to each other and make their own music.

A finely matched blend of seasoned veterans and young comers is what we have here, and there may be something symbolic in the fact that the former are Americans and the latter Europeans - though the time when you could tell most European jazzmen by their accent is long since past, they still take their inspiration from this side of the pond.

Yet, for Swiss-born George Robert, jazz is something that came quite naturally, from his home environment. His American-born mother's love for jazz was shared by his father, five brothers and two sisters; the boys all played instruments, and formed a family band. George started piano at 8, took up clarinet at 10, and studied with Luc Hoffmann at a distinguished conservatory in his native Geneva.

"I would always hear jazz records at home.”' he said, "and I feel that my ears got a solid foundation from that, at a very early stage. Later on, I met a lot of American musicians passing through Geneva and played sessions with them at my home. Among them, Jimmy Woode, Sam Woodyard, and Billy Hart really encouraged me when I was just 13 or 14. And studying classical clarinet gave me discipline, control and technique that were most helpful when I picked up the saxophone."

Among the alto players who influenced young George were Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Charlie Parker, and Cannonball Adderley. "They all had an influence,”' he recalled, "but when ! was about 14, a Phil Woods album, Alive & Well in Paris, really caught my ear - his gorgeous sound was the first thing that attracted me.”'

Subsequently, other aspects of Woods's playing - "his lyricism, impeccable time, total command of the instrument, and beautiful musical conception" -made their impact on him, but he stressed that "besides his unique artistry, there's his commitment to the music, setting a very high standard that is so inspiring to a young musician...  I love Phil.”

A few years after coming to the U.S. in the fall of 1980 to study at Berklee, George even took a few lesson with Woods, but his major at Berklee was composing and arranging. "What was most important about my time there was being able to study with Joseph Viola - the best teacher I've ever had and an exceptional person, who taught me so much about the saxophone. Andy McGhee was very helpful and encouraging too." During this period, George played lead alto in several big band and honed his writing skills: "My masters have always been Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, Oliver Nelson, and Horace Silver. "

In 1985, George moved to New York, having accepted a scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music, from which he obtained a master's degree in 1987. He played lead alto in the MSM Big Band, but there was professional as well as academic experience. In 1984, his quartet received an "Outstanding performance" award from Down Beat and performed at the Montreux jazz Festival. In 1985, he worked with bassist Ray Drummond in Finland and recorded his first album, with Ron McClure on bass, Niels Lan Doky on piano, and Klaus Suonsaari on drums, for his own GPR label. In 1986, he performed at the American Music Festival in New York with Buster Williams and old friend Billy Hart; the same year found him in the company of Buster Williams, Billy Higgins and the wonderful Italian pianist heard on this album, Dado Moroni, at the Cully Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

The group heard here was formed in the spring of 1987 and toured in Switzerland and France; the album was recorded in Lausanne during the tour. Another European tour was set for the spring of '88, along with some summer festival appearances.

“I’ve always admired Tom, both as a player and a composer; to have him next to me is a great inspiration", the leader said. The two horns get a beautiful blend, and have a very special way of interacting, notably in the interludes of collective improvisation that are a feature of the band. "Jimmy Woode introduced me to Dado in 1985, and since then, I've always worked with him. He's a wonderful pianist. His touch is just superb, and the way he comps is a rare gift." This young man moved to Amsterdam in 1986, and I've not the slightest doubt that we'll hear much from and about him. Bassist Reggie Johnson, with whom George had worked before, was the perfect choice. "Reggie is an exceptional musician and the ideal bassist for us - we love him. And Bill has been a friend for a long time. I think he's one of the most musical drummers around." Goodwin's outstanding solo on the title cut proves that statement, and his experience as a record producer came in handy as well. In a varied program of uniformly excellent originals by Robert and Harrell, the band strikes a happy balance between ensemble and solo strength. The leader gets a fine, full sound from both his alto and soprano (he handles the latter with a fluency that reflects his clarinet training) and tells a story when he plays. So does Harrell, surely one of the most underrated and underpublicized trumpeters of our time (and quite a flugelhornist, too). The rhythm section is a delight, with a real feeling for not only time but also dynamics, and works hand-in-glove with the multihued horns.

"We always play acoustic jazz," said Robert. "That's the way we want it... to preserve the true sound of each instrument."

When you sound as good as these five guys, there's no need for artifice. This music speaks for itself; it swings and sings and it's always alive. We look forward to hearing more from George Robert and company - a new branch on the tree of jazz with exceptionally solid roots.”

Dan Morgenstern Director, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University

Lonely Eyes

“This is the second album by what is unquestionably one of the best groups on the contemporary jazz scene. This is music that radiates togetherness and reflects George Robert's statement that the quintet, together since the spring of 1987, "is like a family; everybody loves working with one another... the chemistry is there".

Indeed it is, and the music here surpasses the excellence of the quintet's impressive debut on records (Sun Dance : Contemporary C-14037), which received critical acclaim from all comers of the jazz spectrum.

As on that first record, the quintet here presents its own music. All the compositions are originals from within the group-five by Robert, three by Harrell, and one by the band's youngest member, pianist Dado Moroni - and they are not just sketches on blues or "Rhythm" changes, but genuine pieces of music with an impressive variety of moods and textures. The quintet achieves its own identity and freshness, but it does so without artifice or self-conscious striving for novelty or effect. Clearly, there is a shared language among all its members, a language solidly rooted but never mired in the jazz tradition. The music flows with a natural ease that is a pleasure to hear.

The horns of the co-leaders are splendidly matched, both in ensemble and solo roles. Doubling and skillfully varied writing allow for a textural variety quite amazing for a small group. Harrell, who finally seems to be getting some of the credit long due him as one of the most original and consistently excellent creative improvisers of our time, plays trumpet and flugelhorn and gets his own sound, at once warm and brilliant, from both. Robert's main horn is the alto sax, from which he gets a strong, personal sound, but he also has mastered the soprano and the clarinet (the latter his first horn after starting music on the piano, and heard here with the quintet for the first time on record). These two have marvelous rapport; truly together in ensemble unison, harmony or interplay, and feeding off each other in solo excursions.

The rhythm section is always finely attuned to its supporting tasks, which are far from routine-this group deals with subtle rhythmic as well as harmonic demands-but it seems inaccurate to describe this dynamic triumvirate as a mere "rhythm section". The greatly gifted Moroni is not only a wonderfully sensitive and alert accompanist, but adds solo strength (his modal ballad Adrienne reveals talent as a composer as well). Reggie Johnson's impeccable intonation and rhythmic strength would be enough, but he also steps out as a soloist, and when he does, it's not in the obligatory manner of giving the bassist some, but with lucidly musical (and never over-long) statements. Master percussionist Bill Goodwin is always there, adding colors and textures to the quintet's overall sonic meld and providing the kind of absolute rhythmic security that allows everyone to relax and play without fear of falling off the wire. On this album, Bill modestly restrains his solo role, but when he steps front and center, he makes musical sense.

There isn't a weak link in this group, and there isn't a weak track on this program. Robert's Quest for Peace and The Long Trail are parts of his "American Indian Suite"; the title track of the group's debut album rounds out this fine composition. Trail, with its haunting minor theme, has a rhythmic feel that reflects the suite's inspiration; Robert observed a ritual dance in Wyoming. It's heartening (and indicative of the universal character of jazz) that such quintessentially American music was created by a Swiss-born musician who came to the U.S. in 1980. On this piece, and elsewhere as well, Robert shows his skill at constructing solos that build in intensity and have a beginning and an end - too many players start hot and wind up with nowhere to go.

Another facet of Robert's writing is Lonely Eyes, a most attractive ballad in 3/4 ; Harrell is beautifully expressive here, both lyrical and abstract, and Robert shows he knows how to "sing" a melody. His Sensual Winds has a bossa flavor and gives us a taste of his clarinet, fluent and lively. And One for Thad is a loving tribute to one of Robert's major influences, the late Thad Jones. With a shuffle rhythm and gospel feel, it also contains the elements of surprise and humor that were part and parcel of Jones's special genius. Robert plays soprano on this (also in keeping with Thad's legacy); he keeps it in tune and displays, as on all his horns, a fine tonal quality.

Harrell weighs in with the fetching Opaling, somehow reminiscent of Tadd Dameron, but Tom's no copycat. These guys know their changes. Visions of Gaudi, inspired by the works of the visionary and eccentric Spanish architect, is a relaxed samba with lovely, open horn voicings and gently emotional solo work. The third Harrell opus, Coral Sea, presents yet another hue in the palette of this versatile ensemble : flugel and low-register clarinet combine most warmly and attractively. Robert gets a beautiful sound in the chalumeau register, and the piece ebbs and swells like the tide.

This remarkable quintet has now been together, at this writing, for more than two years; 1989 began with a successful European tour, to be followed by one of the U.S. and Canada, and another of Europe. As this record shows, they just keep getting better. "This band is committed to keep working together", says Robert.

Congratulations, gentlemen - and please do stay together ! We need you to keep the jazz flame burning bright.”

Dan Morgenstern

Director, Institute of Jazz Studies,

Rutgers University

The following video tribute to George features a track from his Tribute Jazz Focus CD on which he performs with Oliver Gannon, guitar, Dado Moroni, piano, Reggie Johnson, bass and George Ursan, drums. The tune is Kenny Barron’s Voyage.

A Portrait of Clark Terry As A Young Man [From the Archives]

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

With apologies to James Joyce for modifying his book title, I’ve always enjoyed this story about the young Clark Terry as told by Gene Lees.

“Clark Terry was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 14, 1920, the son of a laborer at Laclede Gas and Light Company, the seventh of eleven children, seven of them girls. Before Clark's birth, one girl died. Clark's brothers never escaped the destiny of their father. Clark alone did. …

I'd known about the garden hose for years.

"I must have been ten, eleven years old," Clark said. "Twelve, maybe. My older sister's husband, Cy McField, played tuba in the Dewey Jackson band — Dewey Jackson's Musical Ambassadors — at a place called Sauter's Park in Carondolet in South St. Louis. That's where I was born.

“The park was all Caucasian. We were not allowed to go in there. Us kids, we'd walk down there, about three miles. Walk down to the end of Broadway, the county line. We'd stand up on something behind the bandstand and we'd listen to the band that way.

"I remember one cat who played in Dewey Jackson's band, Mr. Latimore. He was a big, huge guy, played lead trumpet. He used to like me and my brother-in-law used to take me to all the rehearsals. He'd say, 'Son, you can watch my horn.' And I'd say, "Oh thank you,' and I'd literally sit there and watch his horn. After so many rehearsals, I became very, very close to him. He owned a candy store, and he always kept a pocket full of caramels and mary janes, and he'd give me a couple of caramels and a couple of mary janes and sometimes a couple of pennies. He was the greatest cat in the world, so I wanted to play the horn he played. I'm glad he wasn't a banjo player!

"So one time they went on a break. He said, 'You watch my horn.' I said, 'Okay, Mr. Latimore,' and by the time they came back, I had been magnetically drawn to this horn, huffin' and puffin' away, trying to make a sound. And he walked in. He said, ‘Ah, son, you're gonna be a trumpet player.' And I've always said, 'And I was stupid enough to believe him.'

“That, plus the fact that on the corner called Iron Street and Broadway, near where I lived, there was a Sanctified church. We used to sit on the curb and let those rhythms be instilled in us." Banging a beat with his hands, he sang against it a strong churchy passage. "You know, with the tambourines, and the people dancin' and jiggin' and all that. That was as much as you needed to be instilled with the whole thing.

"We had this little band. We used to play on the corner. My first thing was a comb and tissue paper. The paper vibrates. Then I came across a kazoo, which is the same principle. Later on in my life, we had to have kazoos as standard equipment in the studio. Sometimes we would have do little things when you were record­ing for different commercial products.

"We had a guy named Charlie Jones — we called him Bones - who used to play an old discarded vacuum hose, wound around his neck like a tuba, into a beer mug." Clark sang a buzzy bass line in imitation, mostly roots and fifths. "It was a better sound than the jug." The jug of course was the old earthenware jug used in country music and jazz.

"We had a cat who played the jug, too. With the two of them, we had a good solid foundation. My brother Ed played — we called him Shorts, he was a little short cat — played the drums. He took the rungs out of some old chairs for sticks. In those days we didn't have refrigeration, we had ice boxes, and when the pan wore out, started leaking and got rusty, it would sound just like a snare. They had those tall bushel baskets in those days, I haven't seen one in a long time. He'd turn one of those upside down and hang the old discarded ice pan on the side and take the chair rungs and keep a rhythm like that. He got an old washtub and put a brick and fixed it so he could beat it." Clark laughed that delicious and slightly conspiratorial laugh of his as he pounded a beat.

I said, "He sounds like some kind of a genius."

"Yeah!" Clark said. "He was. Well, I got an old piece of a hose one day and coiled it up and got some wire and tied it so that it stuck up in three places so it would look like valves. I took a discarded kerosene funnel and that was my bell. I got a little piece of lead pipe — we didn't realize in those days that there was lead poisoning — and that was my mouthpiece."

It struck me that Clark had invented a primitive bugle, on which he could presumably play the overtones.

"Yeah!" he said. "By the time I got into the drum and bugle corps, I had already figured out the system like the Mexican mariachi players use. They were taught back in those days to play the mouthpiece first."

He did a rhythmic tonguing like a mariachi player, then pressed his lips together and buzzed. "After a while I figured out how to change the pitch." Pursing his lips, he did a glissando, up one octave and down, flawlessly. "And then they could do that with the mouthpiece. After you got the mouthpiece under control, and you got a bugle, you could play notes. You could make all the notes that went from one harmonic to the other."

Never having seen Clark teach, I realized what makes him such an incredible — and so he is reputed — pedagogue, and why young people who study with him worship him. And all of it is communicated with laughter and a sense of adventure.”

One of the earliest Jazz long-playing records I ever heard was a Emarcy sampler which included a track from Clark Terry’s first album as a leader. The tune is entitled Swahili which I found out many years later was co-composed by Clark and Quincy Jones.

I’ve used it as the audio track for the following video tribute to Clark.  On it, Clark is joined by trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne, pianist Horace Silver, Oscar Pettiford on cello, bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer Art Blakey.

Chris Potter: A Saxophonist With His Own Voice [From the Archives]

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

 "Chris was in my composition class at the New School [for Jazz and Contemporary Music, NYC] for about a year. When he called me for a private lesson, I had no idea how he played. We started with a bebop tune; but he went further out on the second thing we played, and on the third tune he was playing in the language of my contemporaries, guys who grew up following all of Miles' bands and aspiring to the kind of spiritual strivings that defined Coltrane's music. By the fourth tune, I wanted to take a lesson from Chris."

- Kenny Wheeler, Jazz pianist

“I try not to allow myself any preconceived ideas of what I should sound like, what kind of music I ought to be writing, or what I ought to be listening to. In this way I hope to discover what I actually do sound like, and what I enjoy in music. The moments of greatest beauty and originality always seem to happen when there's no agenda.”

- Chris Potter, Jazz saxophonist

“Potter is growing into one of the major saxophonists of today. [He is an] astonishingly confident and full-bodied player and shows prowess on any of his chosen horns, each of which he plays in a muscular post-bop manner that are full of surprising twists ….” [Paraphrase]

- Richard Cook, Brian Morton, Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6^th Ed.

“He’s something special. It’s funny. Of all the youngsters out there today, they didn’t find out about Chris until after all the ballyhoo. But he’s the man.”

- Red Rodney, Jazz trumpeter

I’ve always had a lot of respect for the late Jazz trumpeter, Red Rodney, both as a person and as a musician for reasons that will be discussed at length in a future JazzProfiles feature about him.

I’m also always on the lookout for “new voices” on the Jazz scene.

So when I heard Red Rodney declare during a radio interview words very similar to the ones in the following quotation, I paid attention.

I’m glad I did because it helped me discover the Jazz saxophone playing of Chris Potter sooner, rather than later, and I have really enjoyed making the journey “with him” over the past twenty years or so as he has become one of the premier saxophonists in today’s Jazz world.

Here’s what Red had to say about Chris:

“I first played with Chris Potter at the South Carolina Main Street Jazz Festival, an annual thing we do. Three years ago the producer said, we've got our young hot shot here. Every town has one so I said, yeah, OK. Not to be nasty I let him play a tune. Well he wound up playing the whole set.

This young kid knew everything, the entire repertoire. He was not quite eighteen then, but very mature. He went on to win a Presidential scholarship for academic and musical excellence. He also won the Zoot Sims scholarship for the New School, and the Hennesey Jazz Search scholarship. I told him, when you come to New York, call me and I would introduce him around.

Coincidentally, he called just as Dick Oatts was leaving. Dick Oatts had been in my band for five years after Ira Sullivan. So I asked this young man to come and play with us and he's been there ever since.

Everywhere we go, he just breaks it up. This young man is mature. I think with a young man like Chris, you have to let him alone. You have to nurture him but let him do it his way. Eventually he'll swallow the world. In addition, he's a great pianist. We could have recorded a piano solo by him and he would have played beautifully. And he's also a writer.

His style is highly original but, he absorbs something from everyone. He is not, however, like many young ones are, a Coltrane or Michael Brecker clone. That's very important because the main idea of Jazz is to become original, to gain your own style. This is the epitome of Jazz.

When you hear Clark Terry, in two bars or four bars, you know who it is. The same for Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker. There are so many others that you can tell within two or four bars, you know them immediately. That's what I've always tried to get in my playing. If it's original, you've succeeded.

So when you find a youngster like Chris Potter who develops his own style, it's wonderful.” – Red Rodney [as told to Bret Primack].

Following Red’s radio interview, I searched out Chris Potter’s first CD under his own name which Gerry Teekens appropriately entitled: Presenting Chris Potter [#1067].

Neil Tesser insert notes to the CD contain the following observations about Chris’ uniqueness:

“In the current proliferation of baby-faced jazz musicians — many of them gifted, and almost all of them hitting the ground with far more training than their counterparts of earlier generations — we can certainly grant the modern listener a certain skepticism. A well-earned reserve. An instinctive tendency to survey the landscape and wonder where the hell so many similarly skilled youngsters came from. Can they all be that good? What does it take for a musician to rise above the rest, to leave an imprint on the music as a whole? And how soon can such a player really establish himself as a leader of this pack?

At the heart of such conjecturing stands the unpretentious young saxophonist named Chris Potter, who with this album makes his five-star debut as a leader. …

"He's been with me three years now," brags [trumpeter] Red Rodney (warming to the role of surrogate father). "I watched him grow. When he got to New York, he went all over, listened to everybody, soaked it up like a sponge — then spit it out like Chris Potter.

He has his own sound, his own style, and his time is by God sensational. Every place I bring him all over the world, people just stand up and cheer, and he's not the kind of player who plays screech music for that kind of attention; he gets it by sheer artistry."

Ah, youth.

And yet, Potter invites and survives comparisons with musicians who have three times his experience. Two days shy of his 22nd birthday at the time of this recording, he shows a maturity in his improvising, as well as his writing, that obliterates the qualifiers attached to so many in jazz's youth movement. Potter doesn't play well "for a 22-year-old"; he plays well, period.

He brings to each of his saxes a separate personality and the makings of a distinct and recognizable tone, in each case descending from his first horn: his tenor work has a comparatively light timbre — more alto-like — and his soprano sounds rich and full. What's more, Potter doesn't restrict himself to the bebop and post-bop idioms favored by so many of his contemporaries; he frequently edges a solo outside the expected boundaries, yet always with ‘form and structure, and a melodic bent’ in the words of Red Rodney.

Beyond anything else, Potter improvises like someone with an ancient soul; on each tune, he spins a knowing, patient, and yet excited and exploratory solo. He finds deeply effective melodies everywhere and at any tempo, ….”

As is the case with many of today’s Jazz artists, Chris has his own website which you can locate by going here. It contains a full discography, a number of videos and photographs and lots more information about his career including the following overview of his career written by the highly respected Jazz writer, Bill Milkowski.

At the conclusion of Bill’s retrospective, you will find two videos containing audio tracks that provide samples of Chris’ powerful saxophone work. The first of these is a tribute to Chris which features him along with trumpeter Ryan Kisor on Charles Mingus’ Boogie Stop Shuffle.  The second has Chris performing his original composition Juggernaut with John Swana on trumpet as the audio track to a feature on The Art of Jazz Drumming, Part 2.

We’ve also included Bret Primack’s video “interview” with Chris entitled Way Out in the Southwest [you can close out of the commercial at the outset of the video by clicking on the “X” in the upper-right hand corner] and two videos from the Jazz Open Stuttgart concert of December 22, 2010 on which you can hear and see Chris performing Duke Ellington’s The Single Petal of a Rose and his own composition, The Wheel, with his current group, Underground.

 “A world-class soloist, accomplished composer and formidable bandleader, saxophonist Chris Potter has emerged as a leading light of his generation. Down Beat called him "One of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet" while Jazz Times identified him as "a figure of international renown." Jazz sax elder statesman Dave Liebman called him simply, "one of the best musicians around," a sentiment shared by the readers of Down Beat in voting him second only to tenor sax great Sonny Rollins in the magazine's 2008 Readers Poll.

A potent improviser and the youngest musician ever to win Denmark's Jazzpar Prize, Potter's impressive discography includes 15 albums as a leader and sideman appearances on over 100 albums. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his solo work on "In Vogue," a track from Joanne Brackeen’s 1999 album Pink Elephant Magic, and was prominently featured on Steely Dan’s Grammy-winning album from 2000, Two Against Nature. He has performed or recorded with many of the leading names in jazz, such as Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, John Scofield, the Mingus Big Band, Jim Hall, Paul Motian, Dave Douglas, Ray Brown and many others. 

His most recent recording, Ultrahang, is the culmination thus far of five years’ work with his Underground quartet with Adam Rogers on guitar, Craig Taborn on Fender Rhodes, and Nate Smith on drums. Recorded in the studio in January 2009 after extensive touring, it showcases the band at its freewheeling yet cohesive best.

Since bursting onto the New York scene in 1989 as an 18-year-old prodigy with bebop icon Red Rodney (who himself had played as a young man alongside the legendary Charlie Parker), Potter has steered a steady course of growth as an instrumentalist and composer-arranger. Through the '90s, he continued to gain invaluable bandstand experience as a sideman while also making strong statements as a bandleader-composer-arranger. Acclaimed outings like 1997’s Unspoken (with bassist and mentor Dave Holland, drummer Jack DeJohnette and guitarist John Scofield), 1998’s Vertigo, 2001’s Gratitude and 2002’s Traveling Mercies showed a penchant for risk-taking and genre-bending. "For me, it just seemed like a way of opening up the music to some different things that I had been listening to but maybe hadn’t quite come out in my music before," he explains.

Potter explored new territory on 2004’s partly electric Lift: Live at the Village Vanguard (with bassist Scott Colley, drummer Bill Stewart and keyboardist Kevin Hays) then pushed the envelope a bit further on 2006’s Underground (with guitarist Wayne Krantz, electric pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Nate Smith). As he told Jazz Times: "I've wanted to do something more funk-related...music that seems to be in the air, all around us. But also keep it as free as the freest jazz conception."

He continued in this electrified, groove-oriented vein with 2007’s Follow The Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (with guitarist Adam Rogers replacing Krantz in the lineup). Says Potter of the adventurous new path he’s carved out for himself with his bass-less Underground quartet: “There was a point where I felt like the context I had been using before wasn’t quite working to express what I wanted or to move forward in some kind of way. My aesthetic as a saxophonist has always been based in Bird and Lester Young and Sonny Rollins and all the other greats on the instrument. What I’ve learned from them in terms of phrasing, sound, and approach to rhythm I’ll never outgrow. However music’s a living thing; it has to keep moving. I’ve been touched by many forms of music, like funk, hip hop, country, folk music, classical music, etc., and for me not to allow these influences into my music would be unnecessarily self-limiting. The difficulty is incorporating these sounds in an organic, unforced way. It helps me to remember I want people to feel the music, even be able to dance to it, and not think of it as complicated or forbidding. If I can play something that has meaning for me, maybe I’ll be able to communicate that meaning to other people, and the stylistic questions will answer themselves.”

With the ambitious Song For Anyone (released in 2007 also and dedicated to the memory of Michael Brecker), Potter flexes his muscles as an arranger on original material for an expanded ensemble featuring strings and woodwinds. "That was a learning process," he says of this triumphant tentet project, "because I hadn’t done anything on that scale before. I just decided to sit down and write, and it was extremely gratifying to see how it translated into live performance."

Looking back over his 20 years since arriving in New York, Potter says, “I’ve had the chance to learn a lot from all the leaders that I’ve worked with. Each gave me another perspective on how to organize a band and make a statement. It’s taught me that any approach can work, as long as you have a strong vision of what you want to do.”

His initial gig with Red Rodney was an eye-opening and educational experience for the 18-year-old saxophonist. “I wish I had had the perspective I have now to appreciate what a larger-than-life character Red was.” Potter's years with Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band represented a wholly different approach from Rodney’s old school bebop aesthetic on stage. “Motian has really had a big affect on the way that I think about music,” says the saxophonist. “He approaches things from such an anti-analytical way. It’s so different than so many of the other musicians that I’ve had a chance to work with. Motian more relies on his aesthetic sensibility and his instinct. He’s basically just trusting his gut and he’s so strong about it that he can make it work. And it takes a lot of courage to do that.”

From bassist-bandleader Dave Holland he learned about the importance of focus and willpower. "Dave is determined to make his music as strong as possible and present it in the best way," says Potter, who has been a member of Holland's groups for the past 10 years. "Playing with him, you have the feeling there’s this mountain standing behind you that you can completely rely on. Working with him over the years has helped me see the true value of believing in what you’re doing.”

Potter also cites his time on the bandstand with guitar legend Jim Hall as inspirational. “The way that he can be both melodic and sweet and deeply inventive and open-minded at the same time made a big impression on me," he says. Touring and recording with the enigmatic duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (Steely Dan) offered further insights into the artistic process. “They totally went their own way," says Potter. “I have a lot of respect for them and their commitment to their art.”

And Potter has remained committed to his art since his formative years. Born in Chicago on Jan.1, 1971, his family moved to Columbia, South Carolina when he was 3. There he started playing guitar and piano before taking up the alto saxophone at age 10, playing his first gig at 13. When piano legend Marian McPartland first heard Chris at 15 years old, she told his father that Chris was ready for the road with a unit such as Woody Herman’s band, but finishing school was a priority. At age 18, Potter moved to New York to study at the New School and Manhattan School of Music, while also immersing himself in New York’s jazz scene and beginning his lifelong path as a professional musician.

Now a respected veteran (as well as a new father), Potter continues to work as a bandleader and featured sideman. Surely many interesting chapters await. As his longtime colleague, alto saxophonist-composer Dave Binney, told Down Beat, “Chris is open to anything now. From here on anything could happen.” -Bill Milkowski